


They Say, Go Slow (But Everything Just Stands so Still)

by StarSpeaker



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, i recognize that the council has made a decision, i've decided to ignore it, the sky pirates and the dream team are still in buisness, there's a universe somewhere where the timeline didn't reset at the end of skybound, timelines don't just disappear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-01 00:57:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6494563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarSpeaker/pseuds/StarSpeaker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The universe splits in half at the behest of an impossible wish. One version resets, the other spins on- and now the only heroes left are pirates and thieves. They're not gonna let that stop them, though.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is my first real fic, so I hope everyone likes it! I just caught up with Ninjago, and I didn't care much for the ending of Skybound, so I did a thing to fix it. Well, not exactly "fix," since almost everyone is worse off now, but it fixes it for the B-team and the Sky Pirates so yeah.
> 
> Please leave a review if you like it! Or have anything to say or whatever!!

_"I wish you had taken my hand... and no-one ever found that teapot in the first place."_ Jay whispered the words, and his voice cracked as he pushed out the sentence- and behind him, the Sword of Souls clattered to the ground. Lloyd heard it first, and then Kai, but Jay was too busy drowning in large brown eyes and waterfalls of white silk and sky-blue flowers, and the raw and smoking hole torn into Nya's heart.

Ronin never heard the words that changed the course of the universe, and neither did Skylor or Echo or Soto or Dareth or the Commissioner (he could never remember the man's name) they were all too far away, keeping off the last pirates loyal to Nakhadan as the battle raged at the center of the island.

_Your wish is yours to keep._

Those words, though, they trembled on the air, echoing through space and time as the fabric of the universe crumbled to dust. Time wound back in a ceaseless vortex, centered around the small group of ninja, as memories were erased, buildings climbed back up into the clouds, and scars faded away into the whirling dust that tore at their faces and their hands. And they held on to each other for dear life, and then everything was still. The ninja were on a roof. Jay blinked in the sudden sunlight, and his eyes widened as he heard the familiar noise of spinning helicopter blades.

* * *

 

_Your wish is yours to keep._

Nakhadan felt himself splitting apart, and the compass fell from his hands, bouncing away into the crumbling abyss. The last thing he saw was the faded photograph of Delara- and then, oh and  _then,_ the timeline jumped.

The timeline jumped, and creation split in two. Nakhadan flickered, and suddenly he could feel his body materializing around him again, and he could feel the burning pain running through his veins from the leftover venom, but he was _alive,_ and as the dust cleared from his eyes and he drifted up into the open air, he laughed. In a corner of his mind, he could remember his own death, his dissolution into the inexorable time-stream, tearing away his flesh, crushing, _crushing_ \- but it faded away as reality solidified, forming protective barriers between the split timelines.

"What happened?" asked Lloyd, staggering with the force of the split. He could feel the power of the universe, dividing itself, twisting, trying to realign the impossible wish with the laws of creation. And when it failed, it divided, taking a copy of itself- and just as quickly as the knowledge of the split had been wiped from Nakhadan's memory, it was wiped from Lloyd's.

"I- I don't know," Kai said, blinking. "Was there some kind of earthquake?"

Nakhadan rolled his eyes at the confusion of the ninja. They should have left their confusion for another time and worried about _him_ \- the venom had cleared itself from his system, and he swooped down to snatch up the crystal-bladed Sword of Souls from where it had fallen. With a whirl of the blade, Nakhadan descended upon the ninja while they stood puzzled by the changes of the universe.

 

_Cole vanished in a flash of light before he knew what had happened._

_Zane tried to grab the blade and wrestle it away from the djinn, but the tip drove through his chest, shattering gears and wires, and he fell to the ground._

_Jay was taken with tears still streaked along his face._

_Kai drew his own sword, and he almost made it, but the life of a ninja leaves no room for almost._

_And Lloyd spread his arms and faced eternity with his head held high and a spark of power dancing along his wrinkled fingertips._

 

"A good try," Nakhadan said in a voice that was almost a purr, as he whirled the sword experimentally in his hands. He would turn his attention to the  _treasonous_ Sky Pirates soon enough. "But heroes don't tend to live for very long- it's an occupational hazard." _And now,_ he thought with a grim smile,  _There are no "heroes" left._

He wasn't exactly right.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the A-team is taken out, that makes the B-team the heroes by default... even if they aren't so good at it yet.

“Situation’s bad, guys,” said Skylor as she appeared out of the shadows of the ruins. Ronin jumped, turning to face the girl as her body materialized from the darkness. 

“How bad are we talking about here?” he asked with a frown. “And how did you do  _ that?” _

“Picked it up off of a Tar’bien Shadowwalker,” answered Skylor. “And I’m talking  _ really bad.  _ You felt the quake, didn’t you?”

Grim-faced, the others nodded. Someone said, “What’s happened to the ninja?”

“They’ve been killed- or captured. In the Sword of Souls. Nya’s dead,” Skylor added, her voice breaking, and gasps echoed through the group. 

“How?” Ronin demanded.

“Was it the time quake?” asked Echo, his large golden eyes blinking owlishly.

“What? No. It looked like she’d been shot,” said Skylor. “Maybe she’s not dead. Maybe I just saw her wrong, maybe it just  _ looked- _ .” She frowned and muttered, “I’m barely ever wrong.”

Ronin rubbed his temples. “I need a drink,” he growled. The Commissioner started to say something to him, but the thief snapped, “ _ Shut it, Gramps!”  _ as he stalked away. Everyone watched him vanish into the ruins, but no-one followed.

“Can we go home now?” asked Dareth. “We could… get everyone else in Ninjago somewhere safe. Underground. Wait until all of this blows o-”  
He didn’t get to finish. Soto shoved him out of the way and pointed at Echo, who looked behind him to see if there was someone else the scowling pirate could be pointing at.

“...Me?”

“Aye,  _ you,”  _ said Soto with more than a hint of annoyance. “Boy, what did you say about a time quake?” His eye was sharp, and Echo made a nervous whirring noise as he stepped back.

“I- I merely said that there was a time quake. I wanted to know if the ninja were injured when the universe split.”

“A time quake,” murmured Soto.

“What’s a time quake?” asked Skylor, tilting her head. “I could feel a massive shift in energy, but it’s been a while since I absorbed any time magic. I couldn’t pinpoint what had happened.” She frowned, raising her hands and letting a ripple of blue energy run under the skin. “It’s almost run out,” she added.

Ronin reappeared, his face nearly hidden behind his wrapped scarf and the tilted brim of his conical hat. Skylor frowned at the flask in his hand. “Where did you even- never mind.” She turned to the rest of the team. “We need to warn the Sky Pirates. Nakhadan’s going for them next.”

“But- what about us? Won’t he be coming for us, too?” interrupted Dareth. His hands were shaking. 

“The ninja are missing, assumed dead. We’re not the  _ replacement  _ ninja any more,” said Skylor, and her eyebrows lifted in surprise as she saw Ronin and Soto nodding. “We’re the ninja. We’re Ninjago’s last hope. If you want to go home-” she whirled towards Dareth and jabbed a finger at his chest- “then  _ go home.  _ But I’m going to help the Sky Pirates, and then I’m finding somewhere to plan my next move. Who’s with me?”

“I’m coming,” said Ronin. The Commissioner nodded and pointed to Ronin. “Someone’s got to keep an eye on this felon.” 

Echo nodded violently, the wires in his neck sparking, and gave Skylor a double thumbs-up. “To protect Ninjago,” he said. 

“I’ve never been friends with the crew of Misfortune’s Keep,” sighed Soto. “But me own crew be waiting on the ground, and I don’t plan on letting them down.”

“And I’m with you too,” said Dareth. “I like being part of a team, and you guys would never survive without me.”

Ronin swore under his breath, and Skylor thought she could see his eyes rolling beneath the wide brim of his hat. “It’s settled, then,” she said, and was met with a semicircle of nods and determined faces.

Tipping his hat back on his head, Ronin grinned, “Hero team, move out!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ronin is bad at coping with loss, I still don't know what the Commissioner's name is, and Skylor has taken up the mantle of leader because she deals with deadbeats like these guys in her shop all the time. I love reviews~


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys might have noticed I changed the original canon some- in the show, the Commissioner (who I still don't know the name of, oops) stayed on the ground, and the rest of the Ninja Replacements went back to the ground before the final battle.
> 
> But in this version they were still on the islands because that just works a lot better with plot stuff.

“Nakhadan’s coming this way!” Dogshank shouted. The djinn was rising into the air, waves of power roiling around him, and Flintlocke’s eyes widened.

“Turn the ship!” He snapped the order, then realized that the wheel was spinning aimlessly. Sprinting across the deck, the sharpshooter grabbed the wheel and turned the ship away from the glowering djinn. Clancee’s feet pattered across the deck behind him, and he thought,  _ I hope to heaven that snake is opening the sails. _

With a glance over his shoulder, Flintlocke felt his heart stop beating for a moment. Nakhadan was drawing closer, and his eyes burned with a black fire. 

“Mutineers!” roared the djinn, and Flintlocke’s fingers tightened on the wheel. 

“Doubloon, I hope you’ve got the cannons loaded,” growled Flintlocke as he looked over his shoulder again. He turned his focus back towards the wheel for a moment to wrench the ship around a floating chunk of rubble, and was shocked by a roar of engines behind him.

Turning, Flintlocke saw that in a rush of metal and bright paint, Nakhadan had been knocked off course. The hissing djinn was now circling around an airship of a type Flintlocke had never before seen, red and shining and completely enclosed. Through a broad window at the front, he could see people, but the glare of light on the glass was too bright for him to make out their identities.

* * *

 

“See,” said Ronin. “I  _ told  _ you I could get REX up here.”

“Didn’t you give this ship to the ninja?” asked Dareth, frowning. 

“I did. And then I stole it back.” Ronin readjusted their course, rising higher into the air. “There’s a lot of floating rubble around here,” he grumbled. “How did he even get the things to  _ float?” _

Skylor leaned over Ronin’s shoulder to check the radar, beeping quietly as Nakhadan circled the ship. “He’ll find a way to knock us out of the sky soon,” she said grimly. “What kind of weaponry do you have on this thing?”

“Guns. Missiles. Some sonic cannons, they take a while to charge after the first shot.” He looked down at the radar and tilted his hat forwards, clenching his jaw. “Soto, E- uh, Commissioner, can you get the side guns? I’d do it myself but I’m a little  _ busy  _ trying to avoid these  _ rocks.  _ Skylor, you get to use the missiles.”

“You got it,” said Skylor as she grabbed the missile controls. “Big red button fires, I presume?”

“Yeah.”

A new voice cut like a knife through the cabin, crackling out of the speakers. “Ronin.”

“It’s Nakhadan,” said Echo nervously. A shower of sparks spluttered from his chest.

“None of you will ever be able to defeat  _ me,  _ so...why bother? I know I don’t have to grant others’ wishes any longer, part of that whole all-powerful thing, but just this once I’ve decided to be...helpful. Ronin,” repeated the djinn. “Wouldn’t you like enough gold to pay off your debt to the Accursed Ones?”

“Don’t listen to him,” said Skylor tersely. “Ronin?”

Ronin stared off into space, chewing on the inside of his cheek. There was a long pause, and then he seemed to notice Skylor next to him. “What?” he asked as she glared at him. “It might be nice to  _ not  _ have my soul cursed for all eternity.”

“Do I even want to know how that happened?” Skylor asked with a sigh. Soto broke in, glowering. 

“Let’s deal with the djinn _now_ , and if we be around afterwards, we’ll help you with your accursed soul.” 

Ronin took a deep breath and nodded, leaning forwards towards the microphone embedded in the control panel. “No deal,” he told Nakhadan definitively. “Everyone, fire now! _ ” _

Nakhadan hissed and drifted back as bullets whistled around him. “I wish you’d  _ stop that,”  _ he snarled, and a bolt of energy arced out of one of his hands. As soon as the djinn began to speak, Ronin had pushed REX into a dive, and the energy crackled as it glanced off one of the wings.

“Well, we stopped,” said Ronin grimly. “But at least we’re still alive.”

“Let’s be getting a move on,” snapped Soto. “The djinn will return soon enough.”

“But what about the Sky Pirates?” Echo asked. 

“I’ll go back for them,” Skylor answered, her jaw set. “I don’t have a source of shadow magic to draw power from, so after this I’m afraid I won’t be able to shadowwalk again. Ronin, can you turn REX away from the sun?”

As the ship turned, Skylor turned on the spot and faded into the darkness, the bright colors of her gi dissolving into patches of light and shadow before melting away completely. "Find somewhere to hide REX," she called faintly. "I'll catch up!"


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a cave in the side of one of the floating islands, just big enough to hide REX inside and light a campfire. And what's a campfire without campfire stories?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like this chapter :)
> 
> I'll be at a competition on the other side of the state for a few days so probably no updates for a little bit, but I'll get back to it as soon as I can. Reviews are cool!

“Clancee?” said a voice from the hold. “That’s your name, right?”

Clancee startled, looking down through the grating between his feet at the hooded girl below him. “Um, yes, that would be my name,” he said. “Are you- are you looking for me?”

“You have to get off the ship, Nakhadan’s coming!”

“But- but I thought we were in the clear,” stuttered the serpentine nervously. He looked to Flintlocke for help. “Um, Cap’n? There’s a girl in the hold,” he started. 

“Doubloon! Take the wheel,” said Flintlocke, then strode across the deck as the helmeted ninja took control of the ship. “Miss, do I know you?”

“Yes,” said Skylor with a slight note of exasperation. “I’m here to get you out before Nakhadan comes back. My name’s Skylor. I work with the ninja.”

“The ninja? Are they-”

“We don’t know what happened to them. I think they’ve been siphoned back into the Sword of Souls, but I’m really not sure.”

Flintlocke nodded. “What is it that you’re needing us to do?”

With a small smile, Skylor answered, “I need you to trust me.” Something in her golden eyes seemed  _ very  _ untrustworthy, but as Nakhadan rose over the horizon once more, Flintlocke nodded.

* * *

 

“So,” said Ronin awkwardly as he poked at the campfire.

“Lucky this cave was nearby,” the Commissioner commented. There was another long silence, and everyone sat with solemn faces lit by the dancing flicker of the firelight. 

Soto impaled a chunk of bread on his sword and held it over the flames. “‘Tis lucky indeed,” he said, “And ‘tis luckier still that Ronin had these vittles on board his strange ship.”

“I know, I’m amazing,” said Ronin, leaning back against the wall of the cave. The cold, damp stone soaked through the back of his shirt and he sat up again hurriedly. “I basically lived in REX for years, trying to get enough money to pay off the Archer’s debt.”

“I be smelling a story,” Soto commented, and leaned forwards as he pulled the toasted piece of bread off of the end of his sword. “Go on, boy.”

“Aren’t you younger than me?”

“I only look young, when in reality I be nearly four centuries old,” said Soto, drawing the stares of the rest of the group.

Echo stuttered something unintelligible, his eye sparking. “But- but-”

Chuckling, Soto told the nindroid, “The whole crew of the Destiny’s Bounty was destroyed hundreds of years ago, and ‘twas only recently that the magic of Lord Garmadon’s accursed blade brought us into the land of the living once more. A strange new world this is indded, yet I think I like it better than the one I died in.” He turned and pointed at Ronin. “Now, boy, get on with the story.”

“Well, I have to say it’s not much of a story,” said Ronin awkwardly. “I lost a game of chance. That’s it.”  
Echo had been drawing close to the fire, and the Commissioner leaned forwards to pull him back before he could touch the flames. The nindroid looked up, blinking in his owlish way. “Why were you playing a game?” he asked curiously.

“Oh- well- it was for someone else.” Ronin’s eyes were fixed on the ceiling of the cave, and they reflected the sparks swirling up among the stalactites. “Someone else’s soul.”

“And you lost,” said Soto.

“Oh no,” Ronin answered, finally taking his eyes off of the ceiling and looking the pirate captain in the eye. “I won.”

Suddenly, there was a clatter outside. “Voices,” said Ronin as he reached for a knife. Echo dropped into a crouch, for once eerily still. Only his glowing eyes moved, flicking back and forth along the entrance of the cave. Soto quickly gulped down the rest of his food and leveled his sword at the opening.

“It’s Skylor,” said the Commissioner suddenly, and a ripple of relaxation ran through the room as the orange-clad woman came around the corner. With her were the crew of Misfortune’s Keep, looking ruffled and shaken.

“You wouldn’t have any extra food, would you?” Skylor asked in a strained voice. “I’ve been shadowwalking back and forth longer than I want to think about, and I’m starving.”


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continued cave banter, feat. Skylor.

“So, how’d it go?” Ronin asked as Skylor gulped down the rest of his food supply. “Easy on the eating, sweetheart, I don’t know when we’ll be able to get more.”

“Don’t worry, I do,” said Skylor. “Noodle-shop chain, remember? There’s warehouses all over Ninjago, and  _ I  _ know how to find them.” She grinned and tore another chunk of meat off of the arrow she had been using as a toasting fork, then pointed it at Ronin.

“Whoa, I don’t wanna be a kebab!” the thief yelped, hopping backwards. “Is this about the sweetheart thing?”

“What?” Skylor asked, and looked down at the arrow in her hand. “Oh. Sorry about that, I was just-” she swung the arrow again- “gesturing. The trip went okay, I guess. Had to make a few detours to shake Nakhadan off our tail.”

“Hang on,” grumbled Ronin. “I think we’ve got a fight. Soto, what’re you doing?”

The Sky Pirate crew- and, oddly enough, Echo- were gathered around the fire, watching as Soto and Flintlocke circled each other warily. “There’ll be no fighting in this cave!” barked the Commissioner, getting to his feet, and was knocked over by a vague wave in his direction by Dogshank.

“I’d better go deal with that,” Skylor sighed, standing up. Her long orange coat swished against the cave floor as she walked towards the cluster of pirates. 

“-that  _ mop  _ on your face!” snarled Soto as Skylor came within earshot. As Flintlocke bared his teeth and reached for a pistol, Skylor clapped her hands.

“Hey! What’s going on here?” she snapped, with a tone of authority that cut through the air like a knife. After all, she’d had plenty of practice breaking up fights in the noodle shop, but never one where everyone was quite so heavily armed.

Behind her, Ronin shook his head and reached for his hip flask for… what was it, the third time that day? It still seemed pretty full to him. “Just don’t bring me into it,” he muttered quietly.

Flintlocke and Soto both looked guiltily at the scowling woman before them, and Flintlocke’s hand slipped off of his pistol.

“We’re dreadfully sorry, ma’am, it must’ve slipped my mind there was such a lovely lady as yourself pres-”

He was interrupted by Dogshank clearing her throat, loudly, and his face paled slightly. “What I meant to say was, ah, you seem plenty reputable and I’m sorry you had to be here with us pirates,” he began again before realizing that Skylor’s eyes were narrowed.

“‘Tis just our way,” Soto sighed. “It won’t be happening again.”

“Good,” said Skylor. “We can’t afford to be fighting each other when there’s a much bigger threat on the loose. We need to be a  _ team  _ if there’s going to be any chance of stopping Nakhadan.” She looked at Echo, frowning, but decided against trying to tell the nindroid he shouldn’t be watching a fight with such enthusiasm. 

Skylor spun on her heel and stalked back to sit next to Ronin again. “Do we have any more food, or is it time for a supply run?” she asked him after rummaging through the crates of food and finding nothing but crumpled wrappers and crumbs. Ronin dropped the empty flask and shrugged.

“Sleep now, eat later,” he said. “An’ if I did, it would be over there.”

Skylor raised an eyebrow and picked up the flask with two fingers. “What did you  _ have  _ in here?” she asked disapprovingly, and Ronin shrugged again.

“Need that,” he said. “Going to refill it later.”

Rolling her eyes, Skylor handed back the flask. “You’re going to have a headache in the morning,” she told him sternly, then raised her voice. “We should all get some rest. Tomorrow morning, first thing, we’re going on a supply raid, and trying to think of a way to stop Nakhadan.” She paused.

“Flintlocke, Clancee, take the first shift. Change out with Dogshank and Soto in, say, two hours.”

Fortunately, Ronin had already brought in blankets from REX, and Skylor flopped over onto one with a sigh of relief. Around her, she could hear the rustle of cloth and someone kicking dirt over the embers of the fire. 

A footstep sounded by her head, and Skylor looked up into Echo’s large, glowing golden eyes. In the darkness, she thought she could see lighter bits shifting inside, like a luminous kaleidoscope. “Is there a problem?” she asked him.

“I do not require sleep,” said Echo. “And my processors should be able to run simulations of various situations which could help us defeat Nakhadan.” He smiled and blinked owlishly, his eyelids clicking as they opened and closed.

“Great,” answered Skylor. “You work on that.”

The last thing she heard before falling asleep was the whirring of clockwork and soft beeps as Echo stared at one wall of the cave, his mind hard at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will at least partially focus on Echo, since I've been neglecting him a bit. Then, we go on a supply raid and actually start to progress the plot!


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His name was Zane once. Now everyone calls him Echo. Click-click-click, tick-tick-tick goes his clockwork brain through the long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long pause between updates!

Zane stared at the wall. His clockwork brain tick-tick-ticked the seconds away, and the seconds wore into minutes and the minutes wore into hours. Not so long ago, he had sat just the same way, with his eyes on a wall of old and splintered wood, waiting waiting waiting for someone to come back and get him. Tick-tick-tick-tick, went the gears in Zane's brain.

This time, though, there were real people around him, who would wake up once the sun came back. Not just empty hallways, and this time, the hours would stay hours, they wouldn't turn into days and weeks and months and years as he sat quiet (except for the tick-tick-ticking, and the click-click-clicking of his golden heart.) Zane nodded thoughtfully. This time, there were people, people who wouldn't leave him alone again. He hated being alone.

He ran one scenario through his processors, and whirr-whirr-whirr went his head and sparks sprayed like fireflies from his eyes.  _Failure,_ beeped a small voice in his head. He tried another scenario, whirr-whirr-whirr, and  _Failure_ whispered the voice in his head. Zane frowned and tried three more times, looking for the point of failure. Whirr-whirr-tick-tick-tick, went Zane's brain, and as it worked, he looked around.

He saw Skylor, asleep in a tangle of dusty blankets, and the dim silhouettes of two of the pirates outside. Briefly, he considered talking to them, but decided against it. He turned back to the wall. 

_Failure,_ said the voice in his head. Sparks spluttered out of one of his eyes, and swirled golden in the darkness. He reached out and tried to catch one, but it vanished at the touch of his copper-stick fingers. He thought hard. Nakhadan could warp reality, and his words could make things come real. But Skylor, he had seen, could do magic too, many magics. So he changed the parameters of his scenarios to involve her powers, and whirr-whirr-whirr went his head again. Zane wished he could think more quietly.

"Hey, kid," said a voice behind him. Zane turned, startled, looking up at Ronin. The thief's eyes were blurry with tiredness.

"Good morning," Zane answered politely. His voice stuttered with static, and he tried again. "Good morning."

Ronin shook his head, squinting out at the dark grey sky through the mouth of the cave. "Doesn't look like morning to me," he said with a frown. Zane was worried he had done something wrong.

"It is after midnight," he said uncertainly. It was the right answer, he thought, because Ronin went out without another word and went to talk to the pirates. After a minute, the pirates came back inside and crumpled onto the ratty blankets, and Ronin sat down with his feet hanging over the abyss. Zane wondered if Ronin knew he should stay back further from the edge, to be safe.

For a moment, he considered calling a warning, but he didn't want to make Ronin mad-

He ran another scenario through his processors, whirr-whirr-whirr, click-click-click. And once again, the little voice said,  _Failure._ Zane leaned forwards, resting his forehead against the cave wall. Drip-drip-drip came the water onto his head, and he straightened up again.

Something occurred to him. It hadn't before. His memory banks spluttered when he tried to retrieve the memories, and he rapped the side of his head to jostle them back into place. He remembered, and he deduced, and he ran a new set of parameters.

_Outcome uncertain,_ said the little voice when his head was finished beeping and whirring. Zane nodded slowly. That was better. Better than  _Failure._ He tried a slightly different scenario, with the same parameters.

Out in the east, the sky turned a pale grey, and then a brilliant gold, and there was light.


End file.
